In Senegal, police question radio journalist

Police in Dakar, the capital, summoned Alassane Samba Diop, director of
Radio Futurs Médias (RFM), for four hours of questioning
on August 25, 2012, over an interview he broadcast the night before with the
leader of a hardline Islamist group, according to news
reports.

The officers demanded to know how he had made contact with Oumar Hamaha,
the second-in-command of Ansar Dine, an Islamist militant group controlling
parts of northern Mali, for the interview, according to news
reports. In the
interview, Hamaha said Ansar Dine would attack the
capitals of all of the member states of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) if military troops were sent to the north of Mali, news reports
said.

Diop said that police told him that the interior minister had ordered
them to call him in for questioning. When Diop was released
at 2 p.m., police told him he would be called in again if necessary, news
reports said.

The journalist told police he wanted the interview with Hamaha to get first-hand
information of events in the north of Mali and not depend on foreign media; to inform
the Senegalese public on the current situation affecting both neighboring
countries; and to call on Senegalese authorities to increase security.